Match preview

If you haven’t scanned the likely team news, AK’s view, beat the bookies and our new Stat Attack feature, then this preview is for you.

Wouldn’t want to call this match.

16:03Jonathon Taylor

Aggers returns!!

It’s an emotional return to the KC Stadium tomorrow for Steve Agnew, formerly assistant to Steve Bruce before returning to Teesside last winter.

And Agnew is looking forward to a real promotion showdown on his return to Humberside.

“Obviously it’s a fixture I was looking forward to when they came out in June,” Agnew told www.mfc.co.uk

“It just so happens that I thought we would be close to the top of the division and I also thought Hull would be.

“Hull have a strong squad, with a very good manager but I think we’re the same. So come May 7 I would’ve thought Middlesbrough and Hull would be very close to promotion.

“What I think may help is I have a thought process of how Steve (Bruce) thinks through game and it might be on the day that support with Aitor can help us get the result that we want.

“I think Steve is a very simple manager – and I mean this is in the right way – he does make a lot of good calls so I don’t think he’ll over complicate it. He’ll do his job and so will I to help Aitor get the result.”

Steve Agnew with Steve Bruce when he was assistant at Hull

15:57Jonathon Taylor

Last chance

If you haven’t seen the goal yet, where have you been?!

Don’t worry, here’s your chance to see what EVERYONE is talking about on Teesside.

15:49Jonathon Taylor

Cristhian Stuani Uruguay call-up

One man who won’t be involved for Boro tomorrow is top scorer Cristhian Stuani, who is still struggling with a double muscle tear.

The £3.6m summer signing picked up the injury while on international duty with Uruguay last month, and has not kicked a ball since.

But Stuani has been called up for this month’s 2018 World Cup qualification matches, despite being on the sidelines.

“Middlesbrough had a great year last year, just missing out in the play-off final.

“I said at the start that Middlesbrough, Burnley and Derby would be the teams we have to beat and at this particular moment we’re all doing well. There’s a long way to go, it’s only just starting.

“I thought Middlesbrough would be right up there and nothing has changed on that. In the summer they brought in players like (David) Nugent and (Stewart) Downing so they’ve strengthened from last year .

“You have to pay a big compliment to Steve Gibson, who has run the club well over the years. After tomorrow I wish them the best of luck because they do deserve a bit of success.

“They’ve been in the Championship for a while but if you remember the good times under Bryan Robson, they’ll be striving to go back there.”

Hull City manager Steve Bruce

13:18Jonathon Taylor

Likely line-ups

Below we’ve given you the chance to step into AK’s shoes and choose the Boro starting line-up at Hull.

And we’ve given it a stab below, too. Would you be happy with THIS team?

Just look at these two line-ups. If you find a stronger Championship side, on paper, then I’d like to see it.

Bags of Prmier League experience in that Hull City side, while there’s defensive steel and attacking flair in that Boro side. It’s finely poised!

13:07Jonathon Taylor

Stat Attack

Right, let’s look ahead to tomorrow’s match.

Tomorrow will be the 45th league meeting between Boro and Hull - and the Teessiders’ record isn’t too bad.

From those 44 matches to date, Boro have won 20, drawn 12 and lost 12.

But stats can be used to argue whatever you like, in fairness. Away at Hull, Boro have won only four of their 22 league matches.

Depends which way you want to look at it, really!

Middlesbrough's Tuncay Sanli jumps clear from a challenge from Hull City's Kamil Zayatte during the Barclays Premier League match at the KC Stadium in 2008

12:56

Lunchtime reading

There you have it. Good stuff from Mr Shaw this lunchtime.

It’s certainly whet the appetite for tomorrow.

12:48Dominic Shaw

A must-win game? Boro Notebook 4

Even at this stage of the season, these are the games which, while not quite being must-win, you certainly don’t want to lose to hand the initiative, the points and the belief to a side already buoyed by recent results.

Aitor Karanka this week spoke about the experience he believes his side can now call upon when it comes to the crucial clashes this term.

And, as an outsider looking in, Richie Smallwood said he believes Boro’s squad is stronger this season than it was last term.

Good. It could well have to be. It’s tough at the top - this year even more so than last.

Aitor Karanka and Steve Bruce

12:47Dominic Shaw

The talking has started - Boro Notebook 3

Boro, Derby, Burnley and Hull were the stand-out candidates for promotion. Even with that stuttering start, the squad that Derby assembled was always going to find its feet.

There were signs it was coming together when Boro were at the iPro this year. I suspect that the debate of whether it was a good point there or two points dropped could rear its head when we get to the nitty gritty later in the season.

Kike puts Boro ahead at Derby

And the chat has started as well. Andre Gray believes Burnley are showing they’ve got the character and the cutting edge to win promotion - that’s what £9m gets you.

At Hull City there’s lots of talk about a club and fan base rejuvenated and united after what one reporter described as the “fractious, unwholesome spells of last term”.

But with a spot at the top of the league comes pressure. Aitor Karanka says he’d prefer to be top in May than now. From now until May would be nice.

Can Brighton stay at the top? Boro Notebook 2

Watford topped the table this time last season with 29 points, a tally which would see them in the final play-off position at the same stage this time around.

Don’t worry about Watford or Bournemouth, they’ll fall away, we said with a kind of reluctant confidence in which we were trying to convince ourselves that would be the case.

Perhaps Brighton won’t be so easily discarded this time around, particularly with Chris Hughton, a man who knows what it takes to win promotion from the Championship, at the helm.

But the four teams around them give the top end of the Championship the make-up a lot of fans will have expected before a ball was kicked.

Brighton's manager Chris Hughton

12:42Dominic Shaw

Tight at the top - Boro Notebook 1

Go with the pace or be left behind, it’s tough at the top - who’ll blink first?

Derby, Hull, Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton are all unbeaten in their last eight games, Burnley have lost just once, as have Reading, and Boro have been defeated just twice.

Such is the relentless nature at the top end of the Championship, Sheffield Wednesday are unbeaten in 11, prompting talk of the return of the good old days and what-not - yet still find themselves a point and two places shy of the play-offs.

Five different teams could end this weekend at the summit. The unpredictability of the Championship forever keeps us guessing but the wise money would be on the fact that it will be just as tight in March and April as it is now.

12:39KEY EVENT

Boro Notebook

Right, before we continue our build-up this afternoon, Dom has written today’s Boro Notebook looking ahead to tomorrow’s crunch match with Hull.

Coming right up...

12:28Jonathon Taylor

Big game lessons

What can Boro learn from their matches against the likes of Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich last season?

That’s the question answered by Dom in a cracking lunchtime read.

“From joy to utter disappointment, Boro enjoyed and endured a mixed bag of results on their travels against the teams fighting with them at the top end of the table last year .

“Important points are up for grabs at the KC Stadium. We take a look at what Boro did well in crucial away games last year and what they’ll have to improve on to avoid repeat shows of deflating defeats.”

“What I try to do is make sure all our young players in the Under-21s are aware of the expectations of what they must do to reach first-team level.

“Harry is one of many players who has made good progress both in possession of the ball, and more importantly for me, his work rate without the ball. He can set the world alight with his individual talent.

“But as a coach, I’m even more delighted with his understanding and his contribution to the team. He can be as good as he wants to be, like many of our young players. But he needs to keep his head down, work hard and understand that he’s part of a team.